[Oz-gifted] Update on L

[Ellen Hrebeniuk]

At 9:04 PM +1100 15/12/06, Richard Robertson wrote:
>Keep on them at school!  We are in the state system and are discovering
>the hard way that despite teacher's best intentions most of their time,
>energy and resources must go into helping students attain minimum
>required statewide benchmarks.  Teachers simply can't spread themselves
>thin enough to give much extra to those students who are 'already
>there'.  Not that teachers don't want to help!  They do the best they
>can with very full classes, minimum time and resources available to
>them!  We're experiencing lots of talking and good intentions but
>nowhere near enough follow up.

My most recent meeting -- with the Principal and Deputy -- was 
interesting.  It was ostensibly to explain to me why they hadn't made 
any formal decisions yet, but there were at least two items on the 
hidden agenda:  to suss me out (of course), and to see if I minded if 
L got the same teacher next year.  I think I passed ;-) but until I 
see a formal arrangement for next year, I am not taking it for 
granted.

  L is already doing Year 2 English and Year 2 Maths most of the time. 
They seem to have a cross-class group doing advanced Maths a couple 
of mornings a week, and as he's in a K/2 composite quite a number of 
the maths activities are done jointly.
-- 
Ellen Hrebeniuk
Sydney, Australia

Being a librarian is how you change the world.
Nancy Pearl